Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is not about disadvantaging taxpayers, rather it is about ensuring that every taxpayer is treated equally. It is about ensuring that a taxpayer, when having his or her rates assessed or having a valuation done, having provided all the information in regard to his or her premises, is not put at a disadvantage by somebody who has not. I will give the Senator more detail. This provision only applies in very specific circumstances. However, it does require occupiers of rateable properties and their agents to provide information when requested to do so. There is nothing peculiar about that. This is as it should be, as the introduction of relevant information which the occupier already had but withheld until the appeals stage should not be allowed to disadvantage other rate payers. Why should we disincentivise people to provide the information?

If two competitors in an area are being valued and one ratepayer is willing to provide the trading information they are meant to while another does not, the Valuation Office then estimates the trading value. The occupier always had the information. There is an appeal at which the occupier provides the information. The person who has been upfront, has complied and has done everything by the book is disadvantaged by those who blindside the people carrying out work on behalf of taxpayers, which we all are. Since the enactment of the Valuations Act 2001, it has been a criminal offence to fail to provide information requested or to supply information which is false. It is already a criminal offence, so why should we have an appeals process which allows information which has been withheld to be submitted? It is very important to note-----